We should also note that Lowell was a minster with the Unitarian church—a church that is now well known for its welcoming stance toward LGBT people.

But of course when you put this peaceful man and his anti-slavery words into the hands of the National Organization For Marriage and its allies at the equally anti-gay Manhattan Declaration, this pro-freedom, pro-pacifist, anti-war anthem all of a sudden becomes a rally cry for discrimination. I'll let you guess who they cast as "the evil side":

In the anti-gay movement's defense, most of the anti-freedom and pro-discrimination poems of the past were really bad. Plus Massachusetts has had marriage equality for a really long time, so they can't rely on "There once was a man from Nantucket..." as setup for an easy poem more befitting their cause. Roses are red and violets are blue, what's an exceedingly anti-gay organization to do? Hickory dickory dock, where are the words that might help them turn back the clock?

"Why we'll just co-opt this pro-freedom poem," they say. "No one will notice or care that our cause is really anathema to the one to which the text was meant to apply!"

Sorry, but I notice and I care. Get your own anti-gay, wrong-side-of-history poems, kids. Stop posthumously besmirching other writers' good intentions!